Editing Rán (section)

===''Prose Edda''===

The ''Prose Edda'' sections ''[[Skáldskaparmál]]'' and ''[[Háttatal]]'' contain several references to Rán. Section 25 of ''Skáldskaparmál'' ("How shall sea be referred to?") manners in which poets may refer to the sea, including "husband of Ran" and "land of Ran and of Ægir's daughters", but also "father of Ægir's daughters".<ref name="FAULKES-1995-91">Faulkes (1995 [1989]: 91).</ref>

In the same section, the author cites a fragment of a work by the 11th century Icelandic skald [[Hofgarða-Refr Gestsson]], where Rán is referred to as '[[Gymir (father of Gerðr)|Gymir]]'s ... [[völva]]':
{|
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<small>Standardized [[Old Norse]]</small>
:''Ok sem kvað Refr'':
::''Fœrir bjǫrn, þar er bára''
::''brestr, undinna festa''
::''opt í Ægis kjǫpta''
::<nowiki>*</nowiki>''ursǫl Gymis vǫlva''.<ref name="FAULKES-1998-37">Faulkes (1998: 37).</ref> 
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<small>Anthony Faulkes translation</small>
:And as Ref said:
::Gymir's spray-cold spæ-wife often brings
::the twisted-rope-bear [ship] into Ægir's jaws
::[under the waves]
::where the wave breaks.<ref name="FAULKES-1995-91-140">Faulkes (1995 [1989]: 91). Formatted for display. This stanza appears quoted a second time later in ''Skáldskaparmál'', for which see Faulkes (1995 [1989]: 140).</ref>
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The section's author comments that the stanza "[implies] that they are all the same, Ægir and Hler and Gymir.<ref name="FAULKES-1998-92">Faulkes (1998: 92).</ref> The author follows with a quote from another stanza by the skald that references Rán:
<blockquote>
:But sea-crest-[[Sleipnir]] [ship], spray-driven, tears his breast, covered with red paint, out of white Ran's mouth [the sea's grasp].<ref name="FAULKES-1998-92"/>
</blockquote>

Chapter 33 of ''Skáldskaparmál'' discusses why skalds may refer to gold as "Ægir's fire". The section traces the kenning to a narrative surrounding Ægir, in which the jötunn employs "glowing gold" in the center of his hall to light it "like fire" (which the narrator compares to flaming swords in [[Valhalla]]). The section explains that "Ran is the name of Ægir's wife, and the names of their nine daughters are as was written above ... Then the Æsir discovered that Ran had a net in which she caught everyone that went to sea ... so this is the story of the origin of gold being called fire or light or brightness of Ægir, Ran or Ægir's daughters, and from such kennings the practice has now developed of calling gold fire of the sea and of all terms for it, since Ægir and Ran's names are also terms for the sea, and hence gold is now called fire of lakes or rivers and of all river-names."<ref name="FAULKES-1998-95">Faulkes (1998:95). The chapter continues with discussion regarding the development of these kennings and the concept of allegory.</ref>

In the ''[[Nafnaþulur]]'' section of ''Skáldskaparmál'', Rán appears in a list of goddesses (Old Norse ''ásynjur'').<ref name="FAULKES-1998-157">Faulkes (1998: 157).</ref>